So he shrank out of sight of those whom in his
boyish way he idolised, never for a moment suspecting that he might have
capacities to the full as high as theirs though of a different kind, and
fell in more with those who were reputed of the baser sort, with whom he
could at any rate be upon equal terms. Before the end of the half year
he had dropped from the estate to which he had been raised during his
aunt's stay at Roughborough, and his old dejection, varied, however, with
bursts of conceit rivalling those of his mother, resumed its sway over
him. "Pontifex," said Dr Skinner, who had fallen upon him in hall one
day like a moral landslip, before he had time to escape, "do you never
laugh? Do you always look so preternaturally grave?" The doctor had not
meant to be unkind, but the boy turned crimson, and escaped.
There was one place only where he was happy, and that was in the old
church of St Michael, when his friend the organist was practising. About
this time cheap editions of the great oratorios began to appear, and
Ernest got them all as soon as they were published; he would sometimes
sell a school-book to a second-hand dealer, and buy a number or two of
the "Messiah," or the "Creation," or "Elijah," with the proceeds.
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